#FirstDraft120 Day 114: More Story Ideas! (Is Your Story Bible Up to Date?) | #amwriting

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

As a reminder for those still keeping up with the FirstDraft120 challenge, Wednesday is the day to review your story bible and see what needs to be updated or revised.

In case you missed it, I committed at the beginning of the week to spending the last days of FD120 writing up and sharing a new story idea for characters in the “next generation” of those written about in the Ransome Trilogy.

On Monday, I posted the idea for the story for Eleanor Ransome (daughter of William and Julia) and James Yates (son of Colin and Susan).

Yesterday, I posted the story idea for Edward Ransome (older son of William and Julia), which involves the daughter of Sir Drake Pembroke.

Since I haven’t written up my story idea yet today (though I’ve been thinking about it all day), I thought I’d share a couple of screen shots to show you what I have been doing on this project this week:

Ransome’s Legacy OneNote Story Bible

Ransome’s Legacy Character Casting PowerPoint

How Is Your Story Bible Shaping Up?
If you’ve gotten out of touch with what’s in your story bible, today would be a good day to do a quick skim of all of your sections/pages as a reminder. If you’re on top of most of it, pick a few sections you haven’t updated recently and go ahead and work on those. But don’t forget to get your word count in, too!

If you’re doing project time instead of word count (like me) and you aren’t sure what writing-related work you want to do today, consider setting up a OneNote Notebook (or other kind of organizational method) of “Story Ideas” and start filling it up!

The last thing Charles Lott Cochrane wants to do is follow in his parents’ footsteps and enter the Royal Navy. Which he told his mother, Charlotte, loudly and often whenever she would tell stories of her short-lived adventures as a stowaway midshipman when she was seventeen years old. And he told his father, Captain Ned Cochrane, whenever he came home for a visit. And again when his father was promoted to Admiral and took a position running the Naval port in Portsmouth. In fact, he said it often enough that he finally convinced them. What he did want to do was what his parents considered “digging in the dirt, searching for treasures.” After the first time he found an old Roman coin when he was ten years old, the idea of history being buried right under his feet fascinated Charles. So he was packed off to school, first the best boys’ school they could get him into, from whence he earned entry to Cambridge.

Olivia Ahern loves rocks. Old stones, to be exact. From the first time she saw Stonehenge to her many visits to the castle ruins on her family’s estate, Olivia has lived in a world in which the past is more real to her than the present. Because in the present, all she’s ever told is that she must act more like a lady if she ever expects to find a man to marry her. After all, with all of her father’s money tied up in trying to rebuild his wool business after a blight wiped out most of their sheep a few years ago, all Olivia has to offer a prospective suitor are her looks and personality. What Olivia does have, though is a group of likeminded women with whom she has formed an informal antiquarian society.

When Olivia uncovers a cache of what appears to be ancient Roman pottery, metal work, and other goods, it catches the attention of the shire leadership who decide they need to form a local antiquities society before one from a larger city swoops in and claims the findings. Olivia is approached by the council and asked what is needed to form a society and protect their area’s historical artifacts. Olivia is thrilled to finally be recognized for her expertise and hard work and works with her group of friends to put everything in place for an antiquarian society to rival those found in larger towns like Winchester and Nottingham. She organizes the first meeting, at which they all expect her to be appointed the society’s president by the council.

Imagine everyone’s surprise, then, when the shire magistrate starts the meeting by introducing the person unanimously chosen to lead the effort to discover the antiquities in their shire—a hulk of a man with unfashionably long blond hair named Charles Cochrane. And then reads off a list of men’s names as those who will be inducted into the society.

With five younger sisters, Charles Cochrane understands that women don’t like to stay at home with nothing to do. But he doesn’t see archaeology as a woman’s field and tells Miss Ahern and her lady friends as much. He quickly realizes his mistake when Miss Ahern and her group form their own society and do everything they can to ensure they receive proper recognition for the work they’re doing and the discoveries they’re making. The men in town, however, want Charles to do whatever it takes to block the women and make sure they remember their proper place in society.

Charles never wanted a war. But now he’s in the middle of one and must choose which side of the battle he’s really on. Will his focus on the past keep him from finding his future?